The Election Commission (EC) is preparing to hold elections to the federal parliament and seven provincial assemblies on Nov 20—in a single phase. It’s a herculean task in terms of security, human resources, and logistics.  But despite the challenges, the commission is capable of conducting the polls on the same day and in a free and fair manner, says Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya.   The first challenge that the poll-governing body as well as the Home Ministry currently face is management of human resources, mainly security personnel.  

The Nepal Police is the primary security provider for elections while the Nepal Army (NA) and the Armed Police Force (APF) serve as back-up forces. 

As the current police strength is inadequate to oversee election security, it plans to hire 120,000 temporary police to secure around 11,000 polling sites and 22,000 booths across the country.  Deploying enough security personnel during elections is hard, says Hemanta Malla, a former deputy inspector general of police. “Nepal Police must carry out its daily policing work as well as secure the poll centers.” When the elections to the local bodies were staged earlier in May this year, 62,000 police and around 100,000 temporary police were deployed. For additional security, 32,000 APF and 71,000 army personnel were also on the ground, with their own sets of security plans and mandates.    Tek Prasad Rai, spokesperson for Nepal Police, says the major constraint for election-related security is lack of weapons, vehicles, and communication equipment.  “We have 2,660 police units across the country but only 1,717 four-wheel vehicles,” says Rai. “We also lack communication equipment and weapons.” Chances of police getting additional communication equipment and weapons before the November polls are slim. In the run-up to the May local elections, Nepal Police had submitted a proposal to the Home Ministry for purchasing weapons. But the ministry initially snubbed it, citing fund-crunch. When the ministry did accept the proposal, it was forced to roll back its decision following a public criticism that the government was planning to buy weapons when the country’s economy is in a terrible shape.   During the local elections, the Nepal Police had to borrow weapons from the army. It is likely to do the same for the November elections as well.  “Without sufficient weapons and resources, police cannot keep a close eye on every election-related security detail,” says Malla. “In that case, incidents like booth-capturing and vote-rigging cannot be effectively prevented. Management of non-security staff at election centers is another challenge. According to the commission, it needs approximately 260,000 staff—40 percent more than in the May elections—to conduct federal and provincial elections. As the number of government staff is insufficient, the EC will have to hire temporary election officers. The election governing body is also logistically constrained to hold elections in a single phase without any hiccups.  Thapaliya, the chief election commissioner, says his office will import only those electoral equipment that are unavailable in the country.  The EC also expects logistical support from India and China. It has already communicated with India and China through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting vehicles, ballot boxes and other equipment. With limited logistics and resources, it is hard to be assured that the elections will be smooth. It would have been far easier for the EC to hold the polls to the federal parliament and provincial assemblies in multiple phases.  But both the EC and the political parties are in favor of a single-phase election.  Malla, the former inspector general of police, says there was no need to hold elections to all seven provincial assemblies on the same day.  “Considering the issue of logistics, India holds its state assembly elections on different dates,” he says. “We could follow a similar model here.” The multiple-phase elections are also cost-effective, as some logistics and resources can be reused.  But Thapaliya does not agree. He says the EC is capable of holding elections in a single-phase. “Unlike India, we don’t have a large population and as such we do not need to hold provincial assembly elections on different dates,” he says.